Pressed metal vehicle wheel



Feb. 5, 1952 I D. w. VOORHEES 2,584,309

PRESSED METAL VEHICLE WHEEL Original Filed Dec. 11, 1947 2 SHEETSSHEET l Feb. 5, 1952 i w, VQORHEEVS 2,584,309

PRESSED METAL VEHICLE WHEEL Original Filed Dec. 11, 1947 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 may 5: VBMTO .QHTTORNE.

Patented Feb. 5, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFlC El} PRESSED METAL VEHICLE WHEEL Daniel W. Voorhees, Quincy, Ill.

Original application December 11, 1947, Serial No. i 790,957. Divided and this application Decem-' her 7, 1948, Serial No. 63,885

3 Claims.

The invention relates to metal vehicle wheels, and more particularly to wheels of the type produced from blanks of sheet metal by operations such as pressing, stamping and rolling.

This application is a division of my copending application Serial No. 790,957, filed December'll, 1947, now abandoned.

The general object of the invention is to providean improved pressed metal vehicle wheel of sturdy construction and attractive appearance which can be produced with a minimum waste of material.

Another object is to provide a pressed metal wheel utilizing a body or disk which can be fashioned from a metal sheet of minimum size and which will afford supporting contact between the body and the wheel rim throughout a large percentage of the rims interior.

Many years ago, it was proposed in the now trimmed and flanged for attachment to the rim.

This accomplished a considerable saving in metal as compared to using square blanks, as had theretofore been the practice, which were large enough to, encompass a complete disk with continuous border flange for attachment to the rim.

In the period since the Main patent, square blanks of the diminished size he proposed have been widely used. But the extent to which his system of metal saving could be carried was rigidly limited. It was limited by the amount that the percentage of contact area between wheel body and rim could be safely reduced. By such percentage is meant the percentage of the total internal circumference of the rim which is contacted by the, arcuate corner attaching flanges on the blank. This is sometimes referred to as the percentage of support. It is clear that, for any given size of rim, as the'square blank is reduced in size, the length of the armate attaching flanges afiorded at each corner of 1 .the blank becomes less and less. Such flange length shrinks with diminution in-blank size until it finally reaches zero, or, in other words, until the square is'so small that its corners no longer reach the rim.

The present invention departs from the trend of using square blanks as outlined above. By

the present invention it is possible, with the different shape of blank here disclosed, to get a much greater percentage of support and consequently more rigid construction, with the same overallarea for the blank. Or, to put it another way, the'preSent invention requires 'a much smaller overall area for the blank, as compared to a square, for the same percentage of support;

stantially along'thelihe 4-4 in Fig. 3.

2 Specific dimensional examples are given later herein. Further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds, taken in connection with-the accompanying drawings, in which: T. Figure 1 is aplan view of a rectangular blank employed in providing a 'wheel .pursuant to the present invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail plan View of one of the four corner attaching flanges'fashione'd on the blank of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a face view of the completed wheel, the scale being somewhat larger than in Fig. '1.

Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional view'taken sub- Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 1, showing somewhat modified proportions for the blank and indicating a slightly different form for the finished wheel body made from it.

Fig. 6 is a face'view'ofthecompleted wheel having a wheel body fashioned from'the blank of Fig. 5.

Although a particular embodiment ofthe invention has been illustrated and described in some detail, there is no intention to thereby limit theinvention to the specific detail and procedure set forth. On the contrary, the intention is to cover all alternative constructionsand procedures falling within the spirit and scope-of the invention as expressed in the appended claims.

In practicing the present invention, the wheel body is fashioned from-a rectangular blank. The lengths of the long andshort sides ofthe rectangle, in relation to the'internal rim diameter desired for the wheel, are of special importance.

.The long side of the rectangle is substantially equal to or longer than such diameter. The short side of the rectangle is, on theother hand,sub-

stantially less than such diameter.

Such a rectangular blank lfl of steelonother suitable sheet metal is-shown in Fig; 1,- being intended for use in producing the wheel body -l Us for the finished wheel I l, of; Figs. 3 and l. A -s appears in the latter figure, the wheel body Illa. is circumscribed by'an' annular rim 2, The rim :may be formed in any suitable, well known manner as, for example, by rolling a fiat sheet in a desired contour and welding the endstogether to complete the annulus. The cross sectional contour of the rim l2 illustrated is simply one well known form which is in use .today. In

Fig. 1 the broken line circle D indicates theinternal diameter of the rim I21 In shaping the rectangular blanklfl to..form the wheel bod'y llla', the 'cornerlareas'l3sbeyond the perimeter of a shearing line circle S, indicated in broken lines, are trimmed oif, leaving diameter. of, for example, 13 inches.

.area of 148.5 square inches. the attaching flanges II; will contact 59% of the portions Hi to constitute attaching flanges. Such flanges are bent at right angles to the plane of the wheel body. Moreover, the wheel body is drawn into the general dish shapeindicated in Fig. 4, a center opening [5 formed for reception of a hub (not shown) and a flange l6 surrounding the opening l5 suitably apertured and em bossed or coined to facilitate bolting of the wheel to a mounting flange (not shown) on the hub. The detail of the formation on the flange l5 constitutes no part of the present invention, simply one of the variety of well known available forms being shown. All of these operations may, for example, be carried out in a hydraulic 7 press with suitable blanking and forming dies.

'for each of: the attaching flanges it.

Let us assume that" the rim 12 has an inside In such case, blanklfl' may be dimensioned 13 /2 inches by 11 inches. That means, of. course, that its long dimensionv is just equal to the indiameter of the: rim while its shorter dimension is substantially less than such diameter. The blank W has, in such case, an overall Also, in such. case,

internal circumference of. the rim, that is, give 59% support. In contrast, a square blank of substantially that same overall area would be 12 inches by- 12' inches (overall area of. 144 square inches). But the corner flanges of such a 12 inch by 12: inch square blank could give only 39 support in a 13 inch: rim. By way of still further contrast, if the square blank is to give as much as 55%. support. in the assumed size of rim, the dimensions. ot the. blank have to be increasedto 13%. inches by 13% inches, resulting in an overall area of 1755 square inches for such blank. Using a rectangular blank of only 148.5

square inches, as against a square blank of 175.5

square inches, for the same percentage of supportl thus obviously yields a large and important savings in material. Spread over the usual ,quantities of production for such wheels, it

represents a savings of many tons of metal.

In the wheel of Fig. 3 it will be noted that the side edges of the body It) (which appear as vertical sides in that figure) are unflanged. The; square blank of 175.5'squar'e inches mentioned above would itis true, have suflicient metal", that it could have border flanges, if desired Thus, as indicated in Fig. 5, a rectangular blank IN! may be employed in fashioning the wheel body llOa of Fig. 6 in lieu of the blank It for the wheel body Illa/previously described. The long dimension of the blank H0 is still equal to the internal diameter D of the rim H but the shorter dimension of the rectangle has been somewhat increased. If we assume, as before,

that the internal. diameter of therim is 13 /2 inches, the long dimension of the rectangle may also be13 inches and the short dimension 12 inches. Fig. 5 is drawn in such proportions. That mean the blank I ID will have an overall area of 162' square inches, still substantially less than 175.5 square inches for the square blank and yet there is a completely flanged edge on the resultant wheel body 00.. In this case the flanges will contact approximately seventy per cent of the internal circumference of the rim and thus give a seventy per cent support. The wheel body may be dished, centrally apertured and provided with. a suitably embossed and apertured mounting'flange l6, aspreviously noted.

In the case of the wheel body Ilfla, the pairs of mounting flanges [4 at opposite ends of the blank are spread apart a little further than in Fig. 1, giving a slightly more: symmetrical location for them. Edge or: border flanges. l8 and i9 extend along the portions of the: body intermediate the mounting flanges l4.

From the foregoing it will be perceived that a most important. and. substantial economy in manufacture of wheels. of the general class described has been accomplished as compared to the practices which have been irivogue over a long period of years.

I claim as my invention:-

1. A metal vehicle wheel having, in combination, an annular rim and'a one-piece sheet metal body fitted therein, said body being. of a length substantially equal to the inside diameter of said rim and of a width between the limits of and of. the length, and four integral corner flanges formed on the ends of said body, said flanges being arcuate in contour and arranged in pairs spaced apart to fit snugly within said rim.

2. A metal vehicle wheel having, in combination, an. annular rim, a one-piece bod-y fixed to said rim, the length of said body being substan tially equal. to the inside diameter of the. rim and the width being approximately 80% of the length, and four arc-uate flanges formed at the endsv of said body snugly received in and rigidly attached to said rim, said flanges extending around and contacting the rim through approximately 59 of its internal circumference.

3. A metal vehicle wheel having, in combination, an annular rim, an elongated one-piecebody fi-xed. in said rim, said body having. arcuate ends and free side edges, the maximum length of. said body being substantially equal to the inside diameter of saidv rim and the width being not less than 80% nor more than 89% ofthe length, a pair of arcuate flanges formed at each end of said body for engagement with the internal surface of said rim, said. flanges extending around not less than 59% nor. more than 70% of the internal circumference of said rim.

DANIEL W. VOORHEES.

REFERENCES CITED The following, references are. of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,533,438. Main Apr. 14,1925 1,998,800 Brink Apr. 23,1935 2,083,229" Horn i June 8', 1937 2,307,335 Reddick M- Jan. 5, 1943 FOREIGN PATENTS Number, Country Date.-

66,959. Norway Oct. 25, 1943 

